Finally Got To Buy Some Steem - Or Did I?
Coinbase Seems To Be Back
Since August I have had problems with Coinbase and have been dragging my feet getting set up with another exchange since the process looked so complicated and drawn out.
But, thankfully, I think Coinbase is back online to me. In fact it seems faster than before.
I did say say I would never use them again since their Customer Service is abysmal but I'm taking the path of least resistance.
I read a post, this morning by @glenalbrethsen and started to leave a comment there. But, since I seem to keep rewriting bits and pieces of my Coinbase story in replies I thought I'd put it all together and make my own post.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
My story began at the beginning of August when I sent Coinbase £100, with the same bank details and in the same way as I've done, successfully, in the past. However, this time the deposit went missing.
They had said previously that from August there would be a temporary period when Fast Bank Payments would no longer be usable from the UK but that it wouldn't affect the Pro accounts. Since I traded through the Pro accounts I thought it wouldn't be a problem so I sent the money anyway.
What I've since discovered through numerous attempts to get back in is that my accounts seem to be linked in plain old Coinbase and that I'm only trading on the Pro part.
Anyhow . . .
Long story short I had a very frustrating 3 weeks trying to get my funds added to my account which included 2 emails from 2 different people sending me the "Having investigated the issue, I am working with a specialist to address it properly." email.
They wanted a load of information about the transfer which I couldn't give them because it hadn't actually gone through so we went back and forth on that a lot.
Meanwhile I was desparate to buy a little Steem while the prices were so low and kept thinking I needed to find another exchange but just couldn't face the hassle.
Three weeks and 15+ emails later I received one from them to say they'd tracked down the funds and they were now in my account. Except they weren't. When I went to my account they had the 6 day hold on them as though I'd only just started the transaction.
So, finally at the end of my tether with it all, I emailed back saying if they didn't put the funds, cleared, into my accout immediately I was going to report them to the Financial Ombudsmen.
Surprise, surprise the funds were in my account within 2 hours!
(The story was actually way more convoluted and unbelievably incompetent than this but I don't want to bore you with even more detail. Suffice to say it was an extremely frustrating time).
Part of the frsutration was that I couldn't get them to answer my question as to whether or not I could continue to use the Bank details I always had or whether there would be a problem if I tried again. So I made no more trades.
Then, a few days ago I received another email saying that Fast Bank Transfers were now available in the UK again.
Never having received a reply as to whether the old method would now work again I decided not to risk it and sent another email asking the same question as previously.
This time I got a reply saying, "yes, it is all working fine again but be sure to use the new bank account details". Hmmm. What new back account? Mine? Theirs?
Off I go again. Another day. Another question. Another email.
This time they came back with the answer they were talking about their new bank account.
Great . . . except I can't find their bank details anywhere on either site.
Off I go again. Another day. Another question. Another email.
Now I get specific instructions where to find it. Except they don't work.
Off I go again. Another day. Another question. Another email.
Finally, I get an apology saying they had give me instructions for the app not for the website. Grrrrrr! But, unusually for them, they did have the foresight to add the new bank details to the email meaning I didn't need to go back to them, yet again, and ask for those.
Fast forward a few hours and I was able to send some GBP via Fast Bank Transfer and they arrived in Coinbase within minutes. Then I was able to transfer that to Coinbase Pro instantly. Yep, you read that right . . . instantly!!!! Which is an improvement on the old system either.
Except I didn't end up making a trade because, when I went to Blocktrades to do so . . .
. . . but that's a story for another day! 😂
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that's the sort of thing that has me screaming, "kill me now"!
Yep. And as I mentioned, that's not even the whole story.
But . . . fingers crossed . . . it will be fine from here on in. (Insert maniacal laugh emoji).
Now I could do with signing up with Binance or Bittrex whose fees, apparently are much better than Blocktrades. But I just can't find the will. 😂
I know what you mean ... I looked at Wirex. Lost the will to live.
I wonder if paying the additional fees against the time and hassle are actually a worthwhile investment - if indeed they work (maniacal laugh emoji).
That's the rationalisation I use to let myself off the hook when I think I should sign up somewhere else. 😂
Wirex is off my list since speaking to molometer and ade when we were in Cambridge and then doing some research on it when I got home. It seems it started off well but is really bad nowadays so there's no way I'm going there.
As I said in an earlier comment, this hassle is the price we have to pay for being pioneers I think.
And when we're rich beyond our wildest dreams (maniacal laugh emoji ???), (hopefully sooner rather than later because let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and my rescuing incompetent punters days may be limited) we will be glad we stuck it out. 😂
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Oh lordy. That sounds like such a rigamarole. I've had problems communicating with CB before as well. They took nearly two months to process linking my bank account 😬
I think it might be a UK thing. Banks here would like to block access to crypto completely and they hide behind justifications about money laundering etc. Reality is that they know if everyone learnt this technology their monopoly on billions of $$ from charging transfer fees would be over.
I had to explain to an anti-fraud person from my bank why I was moving less than £500 to CB about 6 months ago. When I said I was buying BTC as an investment he gave me all kinds of shpile about 'knowing the risks'. When I asked him why my bank was asking questions about this transfer particularly when I've moved larger payments to utility suppliers etc he wouldn't give a straight answer. I think he said something about 'high risk of fraud'. What was funny was right after he'd decided the transfer was ok to approve he started asking me about BTC's prospect of increasing in value. Lol this was when it was at 4k so I told him it was set to double over the next year. 🤣 There might be a very happy bank call center advisor somewhere if he chose to listen to me 😉
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Nah. I don't think it is. I've heard just as many stories from the US, for example. It's more to do with ignorance I think.
I got to the bottom of the faster payments thing and discovered it was because Barclays had pulled out of crypto stuff and they were the Bank that processed for Coinbase. They've now moved to Clear Bank (never heard of them 😂) which was what was going on in August. The switchover.
They probably didn't want to make it public that a major bank like Barclays was pulling out.
It's all such early days and I'm learning that being a pioneer is as frustrating as hell in many, many ways! 😂
Interesting. I've not used CB to cash out for ages. I think I need to go and find the new bank deets asap so that my options are kept open. Thanks for this info Gillian. It's super helpful.
You're welcome! 😊
heh heh, good story :)
Ha ha, yeah. I 4t he was a bit cheeky basically putting me through the ringers with all the 'stock questions' and then asking me for crypto investment advice 😆🤣
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Hey, @gillianpearce.
Oh, don't stop there!
Actually, I think I can guess with blocktrades, since they're trying to get ahead of some regulation that apparently hasn't happened yet, but I'll not steal your thunder.
I must say, I can't believe it, but that is a larger issue than I've had. No money has been lost, other than what I might have earned had I been able to invest directly, but I have no idea how much that was, and this last time I bought, Litecoin actually went up while I waiting to buy STEEM.
So, anyway. It shouldn't be this way. I'm told that 10 years isn't very long to establish working, usable systems, but that must only be with crypto, or open source types of things, since, I don't know, iPhones and most smart phones haven't really been around longer too much longer than Bitcoin. :/ Yeah, I know, billions upon billions in R&D and all of it for profit makes a big difference.
Still frustrating. In your case, it's plain old losing transactions and systems that don't work. In my case, it's government or other institutional players. Either way, not good.
I think it's all of those things in my case since, the reason why the system was changed was because the institution providing what was required by the government pulled out of crypto and a new banking partner had to be found. 😁
They didn't tell us that of course since it wouldn't have looked good that Barclays Bank was no longer providing the system to do the Faster Payments Option. They have now changed bank to Clear Bank whom I've never heard of!
A new player just popped up in my browser where you can buy crypto instantly with a UK credit card. However, the fees are 5% which is 2% more than coinbasepro. They are currently offering free transactions though but, since they are new, I'd rather not a a guinea pig for them even if it is free!
And, currently there are only offering BTC too with LTC and ETH coming soon.
I'll give it a miss for now I think! 😂
Well, wow. Okay. I should have figured there was more behind it, and some bureaucracy had its grubby fingers into the mix. :)
Yeah, others can be guinea pigs, since we're already that, apparently, for STEEM.
Indeed! 😁
Respect for your patience.
I haven't used my coinbase in years but I will be sure to keep my eyes open and look both ways If I go again.
Thanks @willowwisp. It certainly was frustrating that's for sure. 😁
What a drama, I hope it all works out for you in the end, I has used coinbase before but then they warned me and closed my account as it isnt supported anymore inthe state I am in
Since I wrote the post they sent another email saying fees were going up "a small amount". Turns out they are going up from 0.15% to 0.50%. Nor what I would call small . So now that rules out the edge they had for being cheaper than other exchanges. I'm really going to have to sign up somewhere else now. Tomorrow maybe . . . 😂
That is a big jump
I must look into what other exchanges are out there sometime